TikTok Is Experimenting With New Video Avatar Tools, Audio-Only Live-Streams

A new article on Social Media Today reports that TikTok is testing a new avatar feature that will enable users to create a digital character avatar based on a selfie, with facial expressions that will match your actual look.



TikTok is in-testing avatar feature would enable you to choose a face template, which you would then be able to edit in-app. You would then be able to further customize your avatar's expressions based on your actual face, providing new ways to share emotion and response in the app. The avatar process looks similar to Apple's 'Memoji', which enables you to use your chosen Memoji character as essentially a digital puppet, with the capacity to make the character move in response to your actions when looking at the camera.

If TikTok can help you build characters that become part of your digital identity, maybe users will then want to take those characters to other platforms. And while the schema requirements for metaverse avatars are not established yet (nor, indeed, is the metaverse itself), maybe, by giving users more ways to build identity in its apps, TikTok will be able to better align with this trend. In addition to video avatars, TikTok's also working on a new group chats option, a new process for screen-sharing within live-streams and creator subscriptions, which could be coming soon, given Instagram just launched its next phase of creator subscription tools. The Information reported that TikTok is developing paid subscription tools last week.

TikTok's also looking to provide more user safety options, with keyword filters, which would enable users to censor content that includes their own chosen terms in either the description or stickers applied in the clip. The platform also appears to be experimenting with audio-only live-streams, tapping into the Clubhouse-style audio chats that were all the rage a year ago. TikTok has provided the following statement on these new tests: